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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  9. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  17. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  18. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. Where did you ________________ them?
  21. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  22. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. trunk — of a car
  3. chest — a box
  4. field — a subject
  5. lash — a whip stroke
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. chest — of your body
  8. wake — a trail
  9. trunk — of an elephant
  10. degree — from a university
  11. cold — an illness
  12. wake — to stop sleeping
  13. cold — not warm
  14. chest — of your body
  15. degree — temperature
  16. lash — to lash out
  17. lash — an eyelash
  18. mug — a cup
  19. field — farmland
  20. mug — to rob
  21. mug — a face
  22. wake — before a funeral
  23. degree — an amount
  24. trunk — of a tree

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com